Snow, Ribs, and Tuscan Wine

You may not know this, but we've had a lot of snow on the east coast. Today, it was New York City's turn.

When we woke up the snow was falling sideways, the winds were so strong. It continued throughout the day, and as I write this it hasn't stopped. I want to eat warm, comforting food in this kind of weather. Something that makes the house smell good.

A good friend recently turned 40 and celebrated by inviting a bunch of her friends to dinner. I ate many tasty things that night, among them some pork spareribs that had been braised in some sort of tomato based sauce and served over creamy polenta. I loved it - so savory, a great mingling of flavors. A few days later while grocery shopping I saw some nice looking pork spareribs and decided to try to cook the dish at home.

At the end of this snowy day, kids in bed (squawking, but in bed), I did my best to make creamy polenta. I think that polenta here is kind of like oatmeal - most of us, myself included, use the quick-cooking version, the less flavorful but easier version. From what I understand, real polenta needs to be cooked with constant stirring for a half hour to achieve the right flavors. Tonight, I didn't do that. Once the water boiled, I let it cook for 5 minutes, whisked in some butter and grated Piave cheese, covered it, and let it sit for another 5 minutes.

How did they make the sauce at the restaurant? I have no idea. I kept it simple - finely chopped onion cooked with the bits left from browning the ribs, some chicken stock, some chopped San Marzano tomatoes, one of last summer's dried red chili peppers, and salt. A long braise in a slow oven, atop the polenta, a little more grated cheese, et voila.

There was not even a moment's doubt about what to drink with this dinner. A few months ago I bought two of bottles of 2007 Montevertine Pian del Ciampolo, $23, Neal Rosenthal Imports, and in my mind's palate, it seemed like a good pairing. Montevertine is a Tuscan producer making what I understand to be traditional Chianti-style wines - I learned about them four years ago on Eric Asimov's blog. I'm a fish out of water with Chianti, but this bottle, Pian del Ciampolo, this one I usually buy.

I drank one of these a while ago and liked it, but it needed a good decant before reveal itself. And even then, this wine is not about fruit. It's about leather and smoke and game and acid. There is some lovely bright red cherry, but I find that to be a secondary consideration.

We opened this wine at about 5:00 and let it sit for almost three hours as we put the kids to bed, made dinner, etc. When we opened it, it was like a freshly tanned hide. Later on it was more balanced, still leathery though, and I thought it was great with dinner - the acids were tamed, the leather too, and I noticed a lot more dark smokey fruit in the wine. BrooklynLady thought it was "kind of average." I hear that - there is nothing overtly beautiful about this wine, and it is quite the high acid wine. It's ugly-hot, if you know what I mean.